Kristin Orabone
EDC 102H
Professor Fogleman
19 September 2009 Which color index card are you?
I don't think that I could ever forget the experiences that I had in my 10th grade AP History class. It was one of the toughest courses that I had ever taken at the point but I still enjoyed going to class every day. Now the room we were in was an awful setting for the class. It was too small for the large class that we had and the heat would never work in the winter but in the spring it would be on full blast. Still there were many valuable lessons that I learned in that class that helped guide me to be the bright student I am today.
Before this History class I was your average high school student. I got average grades and would try my best on all of my work. Though I had noticed early on that I always seemed to have trouble when it came to memorizing things. I decided to take this AP History class because I loved history and I heard that the person teaching the class was a fabulous teacher. Even though I loved history, I knew that this class was going to come with a ton of work. At first I was extremely nervous because I knew that my study and memorization skills were not up to par, and that I would have to work twice as hard in order to get a good grade in this class.
After our first exam in the history class my teacher noticed that a majority of the students did not do well at all. Without wasting anytime, she revised her lesson plan for that day so that it focused strictly on study skills. More importantly my teacher was going to teach us some valuable study skills to use not only to pass her class but also for our other courses throughout high school. My teacher taught us ways to remember things by dates, by using songs, and by rhyme. She also taught us a way to take notes so that they were neat, short, and easy to go back to and review from. She also stressed the fact that we needed to do multiple things (such as read a chapter, take notes on it, and then listen to it) in order for our brains to remember the information.
There is one thing that my history teacher taught us that day that I will always remember and that I still use to this day. That one thing that stuck with me was to review for a test or exam by using blue note cards instead of plain or any other color. She told us to write things down on those blue note cards just like we would do for any other exam. The only difference would be in the color and the effect it had on our brains. She told us that studies show that students who used blue note cards to study for an exam were to recall information better and received higher grades on the exam. They say that it is because the color blue does something to your brain that stimulates it to remember the information that you studied. Of course no one in the class believed her and we all figured that she was just saying that so we thought we would do better on the next exam.
I took my history teacher's advice though and when I began studying for the next exam I used blue note cards. Just like that as I took the exam I found myself able to recall things much easier and sure enough my test scores had improved. I continued to use blue note cards throughout my entire high school career and to this day I still use blue note cards. I find it amazing how that one simple event that happened in my history class helped change and shape me into the studious student that I am today.
If it were not for my AP History teacher who know what type of student I would be today. One thing I do know is that studying my not have come as easily as it does for me today. Some of the valuable lessons that I have learned from my history class is to study more when the material is difficult, to use note cards, to study far in advance for a test (not the night before), and to believe in myself that I will be able to do my best on the test. All because of learning that blue note cards help trigger something in one's brain that makes it easier to remember things I have become a better student. Previous notations: The writer's main point is to show how she learned such a valuable skill from taking one class and from having one teacher who actually cared enough to help the students.
EDC 102H
Professor Fogleman
19 September 2009
Which color index card are you?
I don't think that I could ever forget the experiences that I had in my 10th grade AP History class. It was one of the toughest courses that I had ever taken at the point but I still enjoyed going to class every day. Now the room we were in was an awful setting for the class. It was too small for the large class that we had and the heat would never work in the winter but in the spring it would be on full blast. Still there were many valuable lessons that I learned in that class that helped guide me to be the bright student I am today.
Before this History class I was your average high school student. I got average grades and would try my best on all of my work. Though I had noticed early on that I always seemed to have trouble when it came to memorizing things. I decided to take this AP History class because I loved history and I heard that the person teaching the class was a fabulous teacher. Even though I loved history, I knew that this class was going to come with a ton of work. At first I was extremely nervous because I knew that my study and memorization skills were not up to par, and that I would have to work twice as hard in order to get a good grade in this class.
After our first exam in the history class my teacher noticed that a majority of the students did not do well at all. Without wasting anytime, she revised her lesson plan for that day so that it focused strictly on study skills. More importantly my teacher was going to teach us some valuable study skills to use not only to pass her class but also for our other courses throughout high school. My teacher taught us ways to remember things by dates, by using songs, and by rhyme. She also taught us a way to take notes so that they were neat, short, and easy to go back to and review from. She also stressed the fact that we needed to do multiple things (such as read a chapter, take notes on it, and then listen to it) in order for our brains to remember the information.
There is one thing that my history teacher taught us that day that I will always remember and that I still use to this day. That one thing that stuck with me was to review for a test or exam by using blue note cards instead of plain or any other color. She told us to write things down on those blue note cards just like we would do for any other exam. The only difference would be in the color and the effect it had on our brains. She told us that studies show that students who used blue note cards to study for an exam were to recall information better and received higher grades on the exam. They say that it is because the color blue does something to your brain that stimulates it to remember the information that you studied. Of course no one in the class believed her and we all figured that she was just saying that so we thought we would do better on the next exam.
I took my history teacher's advice though and when I began studying for the next exam I used blue note cards. Just like that as I took the exam I found myself able to recall things much easier and sure enough my test scores had improved. I continued to use blue note cards throughout my entire high school career and to this day I still use blue note cards. I find it amazing how that one simple event that happened in my history class helped change and shape me into the studious student that I am today.
If it were not for my AP History teacher who know what type of student I would be today. One thing I do know is that studying my not have come as easily as it does for me today. Some of the valuable lessons that I have learned from my history class is to study more when the material is difficult, to use note cards, to study far in advance for a test (not the night before), and to believe in myself that I will be able to do my best on the test. All because of learning that blue note cards help trigger something in one's brain that makes it easier to remember things I have become a better student.
Previous notations:
The writer's main point is to show how she learned such a valuable skill from taking one class and from having one teacher who actually cared enough to help the students.